US admits soldiers killed innocent Iraqis

The U.S. military admitted Sunday that American soldiers killed innocent civilians after opening fire on a car last month on the heavily secured Baghdad airport road.

The statement — which called the man and two women killed "law abiding citizens of Iraq" — reversed earlier military claims that they were suspected militants who shot at a parked American convoy.

The soldiers involved in the shooting were particularly nervous because they were regularly based in eastern Baghdad and were not familiar with the area on the airport road, according to Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad.